"Secrets of Eden" by Chris Bohjalian

I am always blown away by Chris Bohjalian's writing. I love the way he uses the language - his choices of words, the way he creates scenes and characters, his storytelling. I get caught up in the language and construction. I also tend to find his choice of themes/subjects thought-provoking and even disturbing at times. This was all true in my reading of his latest novel, Secrets of Eden. Bohjalian is a master at writing about ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances, and the four voices of Secrets of Eden are that. One of the interesting experiences of this novel is trying to figure out how much of what each narrator says is actually true. The book begins with Baptist minister Stephen Drew having a crisis of faith and remembering the very recent baptism of Alice Hayward. Eight hours after that baptism, which was a rebirth and new start for Alice, both she and her husband are dead in an apparent murder-suicide. In addition to the Rev. Drew's voice, we hear from Alice's 15-year-old daughter Heather, the deputy state attorney Catherine, and popular author Heather Laurent, who believes in angels and whose own parents died in a murder-suicide when she was a teen.